John Lennon's Killer to Stay in Prison

Mark David Chapman, the man who was convicted of murdering John Lennon in 1980, has been once again denied parole.

A three man board denied his application for parole, the ninth time he has requested release. Chapman, 61, will be able to submit a new request in two years.

Over the years, Chapman has said that he has "found God" and that he was an "idiot" for killing Lennon and, although there have been those who have supported his release, there are many others, including Yoko Ono, who have written letters to the parole board for each request asking that he remain jailed.

Chapman was, actually, quite religious in his youth, having become a born again Presbyterian at the age of 16. He later attended Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA but dropped out and began having mental problems including an attempted suicide. He also became obsessive with a variety of subjects including art, music, the book The Catcher in the Rye, and Lennon.

His obsession with Lennon grew to frustration, saying "He told us to imagine no possessions, and there he was, with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates, laughing at people like me who had believed the lies and bought the records and built a big part of their lives around his music." He even had told his wife that he planned on killing Lennon but she never contacted the authorities.

Chapman killed Lennon on December 8, 1980 in front of The Dakota in New York where Lennon and Yoko Ono lived.